Alex Toth thoughts

I don’t always know what I’m doing even while I mostly do .. Still, some of my biggest wins came out of this, as positive as they were unexpected exactly because I was dabbling and exploring. Some ot the oucomes were life-changing!

Because, if you always know what you’re doing then you can predict the outcome too. And there’s no unexpected, No stretching boundaries and limits, No leaping out of the familiar tank.

What do YOU think?

The last Video Call we run was a blast. The results were amazing, all happy faces now having clarity on just what they will do next! … I’m running this event again on 11. Jun:

Where you don’t just hear theory but actually learn what is working right now for engineers in the exact same position as you. You’ll get to share your own stories, trade tips, and get that “horizontal” peer feedback that my mentees found so incredibly valuable.

And I will be right there guiding the entire process. I will moderate the discussion and validate exactly what works (and what doesn’t) from the perspective of a senior hiring tech leader.

And now you can Join too! But hurry up before the end of the week, seats are limited! Click here for more details and how to join.

I’m mentoring a number of people, all great and smart. But one is struggling with motivation and mood. Let’s call him John.

He now wants to get another job and faces massive resistance and dread to update his CV. Well.. build it from scratch, some time passed, and the world changed. LinkedIn is a significant piece of the puzzle nowadays. And not that he doesn’t have some presence, he has no LinkedIn account whatsoever …

Trying to be useful, I proposed to set up some kind of a mastermind session, a group video call putting all my mentees together so they can share experience and tips. Talking to the others they are all up to it, and responded with their availability, happy to help.

John is the ONLY one who didn’t answer!

How would YOU approach this situation?

I realized today that I’ve been procrastinating under the guise of “strategy.” I was waiting for a product idea worthy of my time, thinking I needed to hire help to manage it.

That is a trap.

The bottleneck isn’t the quality of the idea; it’s the volume of execution. I am rebranding my next few projects as “Training Data.”

When you treat a project as training:

• The stakes drop. You stop paralyzing yourself with perfectionism.
• The speed increases. You focus on shipping rather than polishing.
• The learning compounds. You learn to position and sell by doing, not by reading about it.

A better idea will eventually show up. But it will only show up if you are already in motion.

Stop thinking about doing. Just do.

I am a builder and a creator who produces complex things, yet I find interaction with people challenging. Especially with those closest to me. I wonder if I keep people at a distance because of a defense mechanism or simply because my nature is skeptical and relies on critical thinking with measured trust. I sometimes fear I am lying to myself or that these are deep flaws.

But consider this. These are not necessarily flaws. They are the specifications of a good engineer. We are trained to identify failure modes and question requirements. We are paid to be skeptical.

The struggle comes when we leave that operating system running at home. We apply critical thinking to personal conversations and treat vulnerability like a system risk. You do not need to delete this part of yourself. You simply need to learn to toggle the settings. The same skills that build defenses can be used to construct connection.

You are a builder. You can choose to build a bridge instead of a wall.